Or is this really about the naughty larrikins not wanting a second scything of their pension rights, "at a time when the whole country is suffering"? In prosperous times, they could've switched to a different career, if they were any good, which by definition they're not; in bad times, we simply can't afford to treat them decently.

Much easier to make them keep their heads down with a steady fusillade of criticism, threats and insults. Serve them right, they forgot they were below stairs people.

Context matters. You can fail in one class/school and succeed in another.

School management matters. Most of all, I'd say.

And local authorities have sometimes seemed quite happy to wreck a school for ideological reasons - I have a grammar school in Birmingham in mind as I write.

But also, the context of this "story" matters. It's like the way Jim Hacker sometimes spikes Sir Humphrey's guns.

A failing experience as a teacher - and many successful teachers have had that - is its own punishment, and a severe one. Unlike in medicine, you don't bury your mistakes, they roar at you, over-empowered and seemingly invulnerable, day after day. And in the wrong school, it's not even your own mistakes.

Oh and by the way: the statistics leave out by far the most important elements

The high number who leave after a short time (including very good teachers who simply don't want the job to consume their lives - I've seen that happen; or the many who find ways to get out because they are bullied and otherwise mismanaged)The large number that never start after trainingThe numbers that choose not to return after maternityThe thousands that have - genuine - health breakdowns

If the economy recovers, you are going to have the mother and father of recruitment crises:

My mother used to say there will always be the poorest 5%. She wasn't talking about teachers, but it applies. No matter how rich people are (no matter how good teachers are) we will always have a worst 5%.

Next day, maybe not the same people, but still there will be a worst 5%. Everybody has a bad day now and then.

I have fond memories of most of my teachers, who knew and loved their subjects (even though many clearly hated students).

However, watching all too many teachers in the US whose qualifications come from colleges of education leaves me in tears. Most don't even thoroughly know the material that they are supposed to teach, in english, mathematics, social science or foregin languages.